Improvement in uniting bats for making seamless felt garments



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

D. W. GITCHELL, OF RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN C. VVAGSTAFF.

IMPROVEMENT IN UNITING BATS FOR MAKING SEAMLESS FELT GARMENTS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, D. W. GI'rcHELL, of Rahway, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Method of Uniting Bats in the Process ofManufacturin g Coats and other Seamless Felt Garments, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Mysaid invention relates to an improvement on the process of'manufacturing seamless felt garments invented by Samuel M. Perkins, and secured to him by Letters Patent hearing date the 25th day of January, 1.853.

In the process invented by the said Perkins the edges of the bats of wool, or their suitable fibers, where they are lapped over each other to gi ve the required shape and to effect the union by the process of felting, are temporarily united and held together by basting with silk or other non-shrinking threads, so as to hold the lapped surfaces together until the union is effected by the process of felting.

Prior to my invention it was universally believed that the presence of glue, gum, or other nnctuous mastic in a batofwool orother felting fibrous substance would prevent the felting process-that is, would prevent that peculiar interlocking action of the fibers which is' expressed by the term felting, but I have discovered that if two bats are united with glue or other like cement, and the glue is permitted to dry and then subjected to the felting pro cess, the fibers begin to interlace before the water can dissolve the glue,and the fibers having become partially united, the glue can then be washed out and the felting completed to form the fabric of the garment and effect the union ofthe edges where they have been lapped or brought and held together.

. My invention therefore consists in temporarily uniting the surfaces or edges of woolen and other bats, in the manufacture of felt garments, with glue or other equivalent cement- 1 ing substance preparatory to the final union by the felting process.

The mode which I have practised with success is to take good glue dissolved in the usual manner, but made thinner than when used for the purpose of cementing wood, and after the but has been prepared for the union of the edges according to Perkins plan, before referred to, one of the two surfaces to be united is rubbed over slightly with this glue and the two surfaces united, and then laid by for an hour or more until the glue is dry, or nearly dry, and then it is partially felted or hardened, which causes the fibers of the two lapped surfaces or edges to passthrough the thin filament of glue'and to become partially interlocked, for the glue or other cement can heeome sufficiently dissolved to prevent the felting action. The glue is then washed out and then the lap is felted, precisely as in the manufacture of other felt articles.

I do not deem it necessary to specify the manner of preparing the bats or treating them afterward, as my invention islimited to an improvement on the process invented by Samuel M. Perkins, and patented as before stated, my said improvement consisting in the use of glue or other cementing equivalent as a substitute for threads in effecting the temporary union of the bats preparatory to the union by felting.

What l claimas myinvention, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent as an improvement in the process of making felt garments, is

The use of glue or other equivalent cementing substances, substantially as specified,as a means of holding together the surfaces until they can be thoroughly united by the felting process, as described. V

D. W. GITGHELL.

Witnesses:

WM. H. Brsaor, ANDREW DE LACY. 

